The Cranky Middle Manager Show #43 Better Teams With Ann Andrews
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #043 (MP3 10.4MB 30.16 Min)
LISTEN HERE
Greetings. You had to know this was coming. Today we talk teambuilding, one of the most overdiscussed and underperformed tasks on the manager’s plate. We talk to Ann Andrews of Aukland, NZ about Teams From Woe To Go.
Show Notes
0:00 Hi gang. You knew we’d get to this topic eventually. Teamwork- why do we talk so much about it and do it so badly? Dedicated to someone who did it well- albeit finishing with a much smaller team than he started with, Don Juan Sebastian Elcano who was REALLY the first European to make it around the world, although Magellan got the glory.
3:00 Another quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Treat your team greatly and they’ll be great. Easy for him to say.
4:05 Welcome Ann Andrews of Teams from Woe To Go, our first guest from New Zealand. Yes, everyone’s “done” teamwork… so why do so many teams not work?
5:49 What’s the difference between a GROUP and a TEAM?
8:15 How do you know a team’s in trouble? Worse, who’s to blame? Most of the time it’s the leader. That’s us gang, suck it up and listen to this.
13:00 How do you know when a manager’s too tough? How do you know when they’re too soft? Once again we find out people are promoted for the wrong reasons.
18:30 We talk about the name of her company, Teams From Woe to Go. Is it too cutesy for tough managers to accept? Ann defends herself nobly against my ignorance.
21:00 What are a couple of concrete things managers can do to help their teams?
1) Get everything out on the table. The “bitch” session is essential
2) Get out of the “parent-child” relationship. This presumably applies to family owned businesses as well.
30:00 Ann shares her current interests. Besides Good to Great, by Jim Collins, she’s interested by workplace bullying. If you’re interested in this topic check out show # 23 with Gary Namie.
She also talks about “Maverick” by Ricardo Semler
SPECIAL NOTE Ann wrote up some notes on teams in preparation for this show. If you’d like a copy of her work, EMAIL HER
You can always EMAIL ME with show ideas, comments or leave me a message on SKYPE my username is wayneturmel. Thank you, I thought it up myself.
Don’t forget to join our Frappr map and let us know you’re listening. We have folks from 7 different countries on there so far.
April 20th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Another great show Wyane & Ann! I remember sitting through all of those “team building” exercises and thinking they were a great waste of time when the goals of each member of the team weren’t in alignment. Catching someone when they fall backwards is great and everything, but when we get back to the office, and their individual goals are in conflict with mine, it doesn’t matter. The knives come back out. Big companies are clueless with this stuff. The BIGGEST problem with groups and teams though, IMHO, is the big disconnect between having MANAGERS and having LEADERS. Most companies I’ve worked for are full of MANAGERS and have very few, if any, LEADERS. Leaders inspire followers. Those followes become teams because they all believe in the vision of the leader. Unfortunately, most large corporations push people with true vision OUT of the company because they don’t fit the spreadsheet.
August 24th, 2006 at 6:56 am
[...] Our friend Ann Andrews ( from show #43) and Teams From Woe To Go has some interesting statistics you might want to check out. If you’re wondering how you’re going to find the managers and employees of the future you’re not alone. Among my personal faves are: [...]
January 8th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
As someone from further down New Zealand (Christchurch) I can say, absolutely right … teambuilding is “over discussed and under performed tasks”. We can see why it IS overdiscussed. When people work as a team efficiency goes up and the workplace happiness quotient is high. But to achieve this you need more (MUCH more!) than a handful of teambuilding ideas at a team building day. YOu have to overcome some fairly basic human factors. No easy answers.